Shipping DHL?

Does anyone here who ships frogs DHL have any information for me as to the best way to go about it? I was hoping to get an account vs. dropping it off at a 3rd party store and paying them on top of the normal shipping charges. Any packages I've received DHL were billed to me later for shipping, however, recently I was told that DHL bills the shipper immediately. I'm going to have to look into it more with DHL themselves of course, but I was hoping for a start here. I was under the impression it was somewhat less expensive than UPS or FedEx. Am I misled with this thought? Do they pick up the package at your house if you live in a residential area? Thanks.
Kevin

[Joe Nickerson]

This may be just in my area, but I have had nothing but bad experiences with DHL. My last experience; they forgot to put the package on the delivery truck and told me that it would be the next day before I would get it (this would not do as they would cook in the heat). I went to the distribution center to get them. This was about a month ago and if you check the tracking on the package it shows that the box is still there.
2 times I had crickets shipped by DHL Next day. It took 5 days one time and 3 the other. luckily it was only crickets.
Any ways I don't think to much about DHL

[rmelancon]

I've had good luck with DHL (knocking on wood). Every carrier will have their horror stories if you look hard enough, even Delta Dash.

DHL will come to your house, for a fee, and pick up packages up to around 8PM which works real well for missing the heat of the day. I have an account with them and do everything online. It was pretty easy to get an account setup when I did it.

Thanks for the advice from both of you. I appreciate it.
Kevin

[Brian's Tropicals]

Every carrier has horror stories, but DHL's are way too common. Their system is so incredibly flawed, it's amazing they don't have even more. I had a shipment from Pat Nabors end up in the wrong city. They eventually delivered it, complete with a dead frog. Pat was cool and replaced it. Then I shipped fish with them a few times after they offered me some nice business rates. The website was real handy, they picked up at my house. All very nice. Until I shipped 9 zebra plecos ($1350). The next day when it didn't show up, (tracking said it was in transit), they said it would be the next day. The next day, the clueless lady on the other end of the phone said it was in transit and would be there the next day (yes, they're reading the same tracking screen you are, very helpful). The third day, they said it was in transit and it would be there the next day. Well, it's been about two months, and if you call them today they'll still tell you that the box is "in transit" and it will be there tomorrow. I refunded the $1350 and I'm done with DHL.

[Catfur]

In my opinion, DHL was one of the best shipping companies around, especially for international shipments. Then they bought Airborne Express, which was apparently the corporate equivalent of injecting yourself with AIDS. One of the dumbest moves any company could ever make, IMO. Airborne Express has brought to DHL nothing but crappy service, and cluelessness.